1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus and a method for frame interpolation, and more particularly to a apparatus and a method for motion estimation and motion compensation based frame rate conversion (FRC) in video signal processing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The concept of motion compensated (MC) frame interpolation dates back to the late 1980s. MC-based interpolation has many advantages over other simple methods. In order to effectively interpolate new frames between original ones, the estimation of objects' motion in original frames of video input is often performed first, and then the estimated motion vectors are used for interpolation along the projected motion movement of objects in neighboring video frames. The terms “motion estimation and motion compensated” (MEMC) has thus frequently appeared in the literature to describe the technology in the many related applications. MEMC based FRC has gained much attention in recent years with advance of semiconductor and TV technology. A MEMC based FRC usually performs motion estimation by selecting a winner motion vectors from a set of candidate vectors. How to build the candidate set and how to pick the winner distinguish each MEMC method. The MEMC algorithm of prior art works well for scenes with consistent motions. For other difficult cases such as the boundaries of fast moving objects, occlusion scenes, and areas with little details, it results in lots of visible artifacts. Therefore, it poses both challenges and opportunities for us to develop better methods and systems for improving visual quality, for fully utilizing hardware capacity, and for balancing the cost and performance.